In recent years, a polymerizable liquid crystal compound is utilized as an optically anisotropic member, such as a polarizing plate and a phase retarder owing to the fact that the compound exhibits optical anisotropy in a liquid crystal state, and the optical anisotropy is fixed by polymerization. The optical characteristics that is required by a molded article having optical anisotropy varies depending on purposes, and it is necessary to use a compound having characteristics that conform to the purpose. Only a sole kind of these compounds is difficult to control the optical anisotropy by itself, and therefore there are cases where the compound is used in combination with various compounds as a composition.
The present inventors have developed a polymerizable liquid crystal compound having a fluorene skeleton (see Patent Document 1). A polymerizable liquid crystal composition containing the compound may be used as an ink after adding thereto an organic solvent for controlling the coating property thereof. A film having optical anisotropy is produced with a polymerizable liquid crystal composition in the following manner. A polymerizable liquid crystal compound, a photopolymerization initiator, a surfactant and the like are dissolved in an organic solvent to prepare an ink having been controlled in solution viscosity, leveling property and the like. The ink is coated on a transparent substrate film having been subjected to an alignment treatment, and then dried to remove the solvent, and the polymerizable liquid crystal composition is oriented on the substrate film. Thereafter, the composition is polymerized by irradiating with an ultraviolet ray to fix the oriented state. The organic solvent used may be an ordinary solvent, such as a hydrocarbon solvent, e.g., toluene, and a ketone solvent, e.g., methyl ethyl ketone and cyclopentanone, but there is a demand for use of an organic solvent that has high safety and produces less environmental load, such as propylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate (PGMEA), in view of the environmental load, the safety issues, such as mutagenicity and toxicity. However, the polymerizable liquid crystal compound is poor in solubility in such a solvent as PGMEA to fail to provide an ink with high concentration. Furthermore, the compound has a high melting point, whereby crystals thereof are liable to be deposited when the compound is once heated to form a liquid crystal and then allowed to stand under room temperature.    Patent Document 1: U.S. Pat. No. 6,824,709